Assessment for the mid-term review of the Transport White Paper 2011

Assessment for the mid-term review of the Transport White Paper 2011

Monday, 23 February 2015

The Transport White Paper, adopted by the European Commission in March 2011, provided a comprehensive strategy and vision for tomorrow’s transport in Europe. In the context of the Commission’s forthcoming mid-term review of the Transport White Paper CER reiterates that:

The political priorities set by the White Paper should be kept;

Effective steps must be taken to realise the goals of the White Paper.

With this Position Paper, CER contributes to the debate on the assessment of the implementation of the Transport White Paper based on the core set of monitoring indicators:

Decarbonisation and energy

Pricing and regulation

Infrastructure

Modal shift

CER believes that the modal shift targets of the 2011 Transport White Paper are central to the delivery of Europe’s overall goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, achieving energy security, and relieving congestion. These modal shift targets require appropriate infrastructure to be developed. Furthermore, fair conditions for inter-modal competition have to be secured.

In the light of the forthcoming mid-term review of the Transport White Paper, CER would like to stress the following points:

The 60% reduction of transport emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels should formally be confirmed in legislation with an additional binding target for 2030.

Electrified rail and electrified public transport need to be massively expanded and efficiently combined with private electric road vehicles.

The transport system should shift to greater use of rail and low-fossil fuel vehicles in every transport mode.

A revitalisation of all policies aimed at internalising external costs. Transport infrastructure pricing should also be put on a path of cross-modal convergence.